Meet the dragon lady

"Autumn's Passage" is among the vivid dragon portraits by Carla Morrow that will be featured at her booth at the Doña Ana Arts Council's Renaissance ArtsFaire Nov. 7-8 at Young Park.(Photo11: Courtesy of Carla Morrow)

LAS CRUCES — Carla Morrow lives in a world of fire-breathing, iridescent scale-shedding, high-flying adventure and fantasy. And she’s more than willing to share it with all of us, online and at the Doña Ana Arts Council's Renaissance ArtsFaire coming up in Las Cruces.

At her Dragon Lady Art Studio in Ruidoso, there be dragons.

Lots and lots of dragons. Full-grown dragons, lurking, menacing, flying in all their fierce and beautiful glory, in pencil and watercolor portraits. Whimsical, cuddly, chubby baby dragons, suitable for decorating the rooms of imaginative children. And even some dragon jewelry and a new line of dragon plush toys.

There are dragons with monarch butterfly wings; steampunk dragons; dragons in ocean reefs, ponds, lakes and rivers; dragons in outer space; dragons that read books while luxuriating in their treasure troves; dragons that run with wolves.

"Dragons are really cool. They are one of the few truly universal creations in the world. Every culture has dragons in their mythology and legends. There's something about dragons that connects everybody on a subconscious level," Morrow said.

Carla Morrow, who is based in Ruidoso, grew up in Las Cruces. She said she shows her dragons at about 20 fairs annually throughout the Southwest.(Photo11: Courtesy of Carla Morrow)

Her artist's statement is a kind of dragon manifesto: "Every culture as far back as we can study have believed in dragons. They meant different things to different people, but always they were there. Some created the universe and our world, some just (inhabited) multiple bodies of water that surround us, and others the mountains and landscapes we call home. ... Others sought to destroy, and became gods of chaos. Religion, myth, and even history all carry shadows of the dragon. And in our day, the dragon still has a firm grip on our waking and sleeping minds. Through the written word, movies, games and advertisements, dragons still fly through our imaginations and sing in our hearts."

She said she is often asked if she sees dragons.

"I do. They are always there, watching us. They have just taken a different form," she mused.

Morrow grew up in Las Cruces and graduated from Las Cruces High School.

"Except for a few art classes in high school, I'm mostly self-taught," she said.

"While other children were eating their crayons, I was putting mine to the walls, and while they were out playing in their yards and streets, I was perfectly happy to sit alone for hours and draw," she says in her online biography, adding that when she was asked about career plans, "I always drew pictures of myself drawing."

She said she was a Dungeons & Dragons-playing "uber geek" well into her college years.

"The strain of wanting to stay home to do art during college parties was too much, and I dropped out quickly to pursue my own study. I have since spent the past few years seeking out all the info I could on painting, drawing and anatomy studies."

It seems to run in the family.

"We have quite a few artists. My grandmothers and aunts and uncles were artists and painters. My husband, Jason, blows glass, and his mother is an artist, too," she said.

Inspiration for a seemingly infinite number of dragons, each with its own backstory, can come from unexpected sources.

Even an expression on the face of her Boston terrier, Libby, was an inspiration. "I used that for one of my baby dragons."

Her dragons "have their own stories. Some are lost in fairyland. They have no particular connection with fairies, but find them pretty darn tasty," said Morrow, who hopes to focus more attention on the baby beasts with a children's book and a line of plush dragons she designed.

"Really, inspiration can come from anywhere: photos shot from space, butterflies, colors and shapes, the Japanese legend of the koi fish that jumped a bridge and became a dragon, Quetzalcoatl stories, everything and anything. You can put dragons anywhere. "

"The Key" stars one of Carla Morrow's Steampunk dragons. Each dragon has its own backstory.(Photo11: Courtesy of Carla Morrow)

Occasionally, she enjoys brief flights of reality, with what she call "palette-cleansing" breaks to do sketches of wildlife, such as lions and eagles.

She frequently experiments with new media, but watercolor and graphite remain her favorites.

"I've painted with acrylics, but I like the technique of watercolor more. It's better for dragons. You've got to let each one be its own beast."

There is an ever-growing demand for her creations, at Renaissance festivals, comic cons and amine and furry conventions throughout the West, from Denver to Dallas.

"I've been part of RenFaire in Las Cruces for seven or eight years. It's really cool and different from other Renaissance fairs. There's more emphasis on fine arts. I'm doing about 20 shows this year. I don't do galleries. They are just now getting the fantasy bug. (Fantasy subject matter) hasn't been considered high end art, but that's starting to change," said Morrow, who supplements her burgeoning online marketing and festival and show tours with a part-time job at a Ruidoso bookstore.

You can visit Morrow and her dragons at the Renaissance ArtsFaire Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 7-8, at Young Park in Las Cruces. To see and purchase her work online, visit dragonladyart.com, a site where you'll also find links to her blog, Facebook page and more information about her current projects, including upcoming festival appearances and her baby dragon creations.

S. Derrickson Moore may be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news, @derricksonmoore on Twitter and Tout, or 575-541-5450.